Band punished for mocking Notre Dame: 10/97

'Tasteless performance'
earns ban for Band

The Stanford Band has been
prohibited from performing at football games against the University
of Notre Dame until 2000 in the wake of shows at an Oct. 4
intercollegiate match that have been blasted as racist and
insulting.

Irish and Catholic groups criticized
the maverick band's pre-game and half-time performances, which
included a parody of the Irish potato famine and a band member
dressed as a Catholic cardinal.

President Gerhard Casper offered
Stanford's apologies to Notre Dame. Athletic Director Ted Leland
said in a statement issued Oct. 6: "I apologize for the tasteless
performance by the Stanford Band at last Saturday's football game
with Notre Dame. In their sophomoric attempt at humor, the band
crossed the line from funny to obnoxious and offensive."

But band members say that their
halftime show, titled, "These Irish, Why Must They Fight?" was
misinterpreted, partly because of an unclear fieldshow script. "For
this, we apologize," the band said in a long statement posted on
its web page. "Its misinterpretation as an assault on the Irish
seems obvious in retrospect, but did not occur to any of our
censors. We erred in judgment, and we apologize."

The band also said that claims that
the scrips referred to the Irish as "stinkin' drunks" were
false.

The statement said that the concept
behind the show was not to insult Irish people but to ridicule
Notre Dame's leprechaun mascot, which the band called racist. "We
think it absurd that Notre Dame can claim a whole ethnicity as its
mascot, and further characterize this ethnicity as belligerent: the
Fighting Irish," the statement read. "Further, to represent the
Irish, Notre Dame uses a leprechaun. Most Irish people we know are
not, in fact, leprechauns."

The Athletic Department also said it
would "revamp its standing procedure to review Band scripts." It
had apparently approved the Oct. 4 script, which led to what it
later called an "unacceptable show." SR